The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 6, 1904, Page 11

R ST — Miss a known as 2l meaning of her her than such a ulerit 1mp that pever seems > trouble sides. For proper! ntry of the Manchows en by 1k of the dy- rules over China as founde: snation for his fam thet pure meaning 1 as being partic- n explorers the Amur country was i of, but because range, un- tended to be noth- thar a wilderness in- people, they it as their very as Spain’ claimed Amer- appened to be a flag up on the baro ibled pot began oth Russia and v 3 med jurisdiction, s wer atched s speed to tell the in- he wisest thing he and ery t Siberia Muravieff by 1854 down the but th was { means that been ned up d abet him them most, and so g ned a foothold k v. In fact, Mura- idn’t Vladivo- north- inhospitable rs, there s no re thoroughly naval station he process of fortifying absolutely safe from ne caused Russia to er peasants in great numbers, port was opened y poured into the f thousands and ent settiements, ap- perhaps more Manchuria, Lo be a quiet, staid, and > is deso- he B v S GRS - e s re are in Mancnuria to-day 5 3000000 -Decaie ol Tl mndbEr t a fast and furious rate. of the ar is mostly the common k has been used so » often that it has come to v F an sent into a new country on account of trou- ding her army and the s and s that were there and every- ¥ lowers in the spring her new domains was a some one, as over 1d and water had .to V And then, just as she was commenc- ing to plot and plan for newer con- quests, Japan stepped into the fray materially isted her. The ps in 2 moment of rage decided to humble the ide of the almond-eyed E so doing they gave opportunity to lease Port Arthur as raval station, and lo and behold both feet were firmly planted on a new territory and the land of the Czar laughed silently but long in its slee The pressure of foreign commerce THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY o | AN el THE CZAP_OF SIA © \H A i e T ’UDM o ked INTERIOR - OF A CITY DARK: _ _* \ 5 4 er that the provinces might be more roadbed Russia again saw a golden in. ily opened up for traflic and when chance and was anythijpg but slow n fied With her terminus at Viadivostok, Railwa CALL. - In the first place she wasn't satis- NN NS =\ N closed it fully six months out of the twelve, so she never rested until she had secured the rights to extend her Trans-Siberian road to the south and through Manchuria to Tachichao, near Mukden. In her diplomacy she planned that one branch should run to Port Arthur and Dalny and anothér toward Shanhaikwan, where the great wall of China touches the sea. Whether or not China realized the immense power that she was giving her enemy Is not known, but the fact remains just the same that the Russians gained great influence in North China and that her entrance is unrestricted, so that she may come and go as she sees fit. Dalny, whieh, by the way, means “far away” in the Russian language, is one of, if not the most, characteristic of the Russian cities and, while it is a long way from its mother city, St. Petersburg, it owes 1ts existence to the fron will of the Russian Emperor, who caused it to be built it e single day, as It were, as a port “to be opened to the fleets of all nations.” What the Czar wanted was a sort of an outer gateway that could be used at all seasons and all times and, with his usual style of appropriating things, he got it. In 1891, he laid the first stone in what is known as his “Great Siberian v and he made it his business rose up and demanded railroads in or- China actually began putting in a coming to the fromt to slip her wedge for the ice in the harbor practically to see that it was finished at an aston- > — 'MEN I HAVE MET BEHIND very strange c acters behind prison bars, 8 v philosophers, some fo mostly fools”—1 om 1 now in mind's ed al “pecufiari- ff from their avis was Thomas R—, sentence of seven for what some thought at the time, was but a foolish freak and others a grave criminal of- The son of a solicitor in South Lon- don, Thomas had some private means s nd devoted his time to the f anarchism and — clocks. At g himself to a socialist club, near Greenwich, he becam. 21 a: t pupil t school of thought” — or s and when, after the President Carnot, in Parls, i to commute the ce passed on the murderer, ermined to strike a blow at rnments (by way of reprisal) pennyworth ‘of gun- the letter-box of an inof- aster in Greenwich. as little or no damage done sle thing would have been 2 week. But this did not suit 5 He wanted 1o be famous and he thought that his whiff of gun- powder had made him so. Finding that little noise was made about this exploit, he wrote a letter to the postmaster bidding defiance to all constituted authority and, as a result, be was arrested and ‘ried, under the ~ death ser explosives act,” for this outrage on the letter-box. He was found “guilty” and Mr. Justice Bruce sentenced him to seven years’ penal servitude. 1 chanced to be one of a batch of nine prisoners who were transferred from Chelmsford Gaol to Parkhurst convict prison in June, 18 —, and, when we entered the train at Waterloo, I found that Thomas was my vis-a-vis. He was in a communicative mood; and, as the rules of discipline are some- what relaxed on such occasions, we had a lengthy conversation on the journey between Waterloo and Southampton. Thomas had, somehow, got it into his mind that he was a “political” prisoner and not a common felon; and one of the first things he asked me was “what the papers had to say” about his doings, He was, evidently, under the impres- sion that the whole of England, from Lands End to John O'Groats, was ring- ing with the letter-box fiasco, whereas, =0 far as I knew, not a single paper had made the least comment upon it. To all appearance, Thomas was of sound inteilect; he could converse co- herently and, , indeed, learnedly on most subjects, and altogether he made @ rather favorable impression at this first interview. We had not been in Parkhurst many days before Thomas proved himself to be a “crackpot.” I met him one morning on the exercise ground and the following dialogue might have been heard by any one standing within a few yards of us. Coming behind me he whispered: “I say, No. 43, isn’t this a beastly place? I would like to blow the whole prison up, Governor and all.” I was anxious to turn the conversa- 3 | By J. P. THE BARS L of Duggan g o tion into another channel, and know- ing that Thomas returned his dinners to the kitchen daily untouched, I ask- ed him why he didn’t eat his meat and soup. “Never eat meat nor drank soup in my life.” “But why? Are you a vegetarian?” #No, but I never did eat meat and, as they won't give me anything in place of my dinners, which I always send back, it is evident that the auth- orities are starving me.” 3 1 tried to impress the plain fact upon him that he was starving him- self; but Thomas would not have that at any price and, with a contemptu- ous sneer at my stupidity, wound up the conversation with this tremendous pronouncement: “You ar: thick headed, No. 43. ‘Were you not so you could see things as they are. I am a dangerous politi- cal prisoner and a sworn enemy of all governments. The cabinet would like to kill me If they could do so de- cently; but instead of sending pne of their assassins into my cell t6 mur- der me outright, they choose to let me die of starvation by withholding food that I could eat and forcing on me what they know I can'tteat. But I am not going to die until I strike a blow at Downing #treet that will shake the empire.” Another remarkable character, still behind the bars, s the man Bonson, who is serving five years in connection with ‘a Stock ge swindle. He is a wealthy man, 8hd his one idea when 1 knew him was that his riches would purchase his freedom. There were several other ‘‘moneyed men” behind the bars at Parkhurst in my time, and, short of liberty, they could—some of them did—buy anything they took a fancy to (in a quilet, clan- destine way, of course). One such man was Saker, the junior member of a firm of solicitors well known in Lincoln’s Inn. Unlike Bonson, Saker was an Israel- ite who had no guile. Simplicity was his distinctive mark and peculiarity; and it was always a puzzle to me how such a man could have been guilty of the fraud on acount of which he is now undergoing ten years’ penal servitude. The mystery was cleared up one day when Saker—who then had charge of the workshop in which I was employed —gave me a brief history ‘of his case. Saker was the victim of circum- stances. The firm, of which he was ju- nior member, became involved in very serious difficulties, and the Incorpo- rated Law Society took up the matter. Saker, although a rich man and but recently married, offered to take all re- sponsibility, under certain conditions, and he was arrested on a charge of fraud. As every one acquainted with legal life knows, there are very often com- plications—wheels within wheels—which baffle even the most astute minds and make an intelligible appreciation of facts very difficult. \ This was the case here. Saker; was committed for trial, and in due course ‘was removed from. Hollo: -to New- gate pum;whtvvqthomathfimu' he was visited by the heads of the firm and received an assurance that the case would be put on the list of the then Recorder (the 'late Sir Charles Hall), and that if he pleaded guilty he would get off with a very light sen- tence. - The arrangement was agreed upon and. next day, Saker was placed in the Old Bailey dock before the Recorder. To the surprise of every one in court and, especially, of Saker himself, Sir Charles Hall rose from the bench and, seeming to remember suddenly an im- portant engagement .elsewhere, he ad- Journed the court until the following morning. One result of this unexpected incident was that Saker's case was transferred to “No. 2" court. Not wishing to de- part from the arrangements made with his partners, he pleaded “Guilty” to the charges and, to his dismay, was sen- tenced to ten years’ penal :ervitude by a Judge known to be particularly se- vere in dealing with fraudulent solici- tors. Saker made several attempts to have the case reopened, but as there is as et no court of criminal appeal in this country, he spends h:s days and nights vainly looking out, from behind the bars of Parkhurst Prison, for some- thing to “turn.up” which may deliver him from the cage wherein he has al- ready passed four years. From behind the bars of the same cage another remarkable convict is also looking out, but with eyes directed, not toward the new law courts, but to- ward the treasury, against the First Lord of which he says he intends to bring an act.on for comp-asation for false imprisonment. This gentleman’s name is Josiah Grayson. He is an American by birth, a speculator by profession and (so he asserts) a convict by a miscarriage of justice. The master of six or seven languages, Grayson uses only one—the vernacular—and that mainly to blas- pheme. He disclaims all intention or desire to conform to the rules and regulations of the prison and will have nothing to do with “class” distinctions, which (he de- clares) he could not recognize, since to do so would be to ackno ~ledge the jus- tice of his sentence. Moreover, Grayson carries his ideas of resistance so far that, now and again, he takes it into his head to re- fuse his prison food, and on one occa- sion he abstained for a whole week from either eating or drinking, with the result that he had to be admitted into the hospital and put upon special diet to keep him alive. His particular fad was to sue the treasury for false imprisonment, and, as he is undergoing sevenyears—every day of which he will have to serve (having forfeited all “remission marks”)—and will claim two-sixths per diem for the whole of that time, he intends to pro- ceed against the treasury to recover the modest sum of £319 7s 6d on his release from prison. I met with a very large number of men behind the bars who would have done credit to any soclety; university men, professional men, business men and men of no particular “calling, but with rome means at their command. The latter class is, generally, the most ‘“ofMsh” and least inclined to sociabil- ity. But one of thig extremely reticent and select body of convicts got himself into difficulties one day through an un- wonted slip of the tongue. ishingly fast rate. until it covered, with the Manchurian lines, more than twice the distance between San Francisco end New York. In Dalny, his pet city, he saw that great docks were bullt, so that they might be in readiness to handle freight and passengers when they knocked for entrance, for he cleverly figured out that the port was too convenient to be ignored Every country recognized his mas- ter stroke and Mr Jorman. an lish writer, savs Since the great wall of China the world has seen no material undertaking of equal magni- tude. That Russia should have co celved it and carried it out makes magination falter for r future in- fluence upon the cour of human events.” And indeed, though Dalny and the cities near it seem so far way. too far, in fact, to bother the other~nations much at first, the now looming up and world in general that sia is not to be sn truth, when all one pick up a new or some of the other large ci world to see notices and dates posed sales and leases brings to light in a hurry that new Russia is pursuing a very wise and liberal B icy and furth e that poses to make this lat »n of hers felt as a world power Here she op: her doors freely and invites those who care to ay to come in and buy and own their own property, and nds a wel- come to Jews, while Chinese are regarded in a more light and mix more freely with the foreigners thap in any other part of the earth, which naturally is making and quick- ly spreading a kindly feeling between the two nations. Emperor is follow planned and exce policy. One thing in particular will make his most distant city popular and its har- bor always well filled. No customs charges are as for it is a free port, and no more dock and harbor are required than are absolutely essary. Of course, his objegk is v plain, quite as plain as his up-to-date facilities, and if his course of action does not attract and hold trade the Russian will be bitterly disappointed. Not only in this respect has the city roved in double quick order and with great foresight. The streets are wide and well paved, with good sewers; there are public parks, fine public b ngs, hospitals, electric light plants and all else that goes to make a city comfortable and attrac- tive. There is ¢ne thing laeking in Dalny that has caused comment, and that is the utter absence of military protec- tion. *Uudoubtedly Russia thinks she doesn’t need it, as it is but forty miles-away from Port Arthur, which is fairly alive with guns and filled to fits utmost capacity with well trained sol- diers, as, in fact, is every new town and harbor in Manchuria. No matter what mischief Pussia may be getting into or how many fingers she may be getting in China’'s pie, the fact remains just the same that she is open- ing up new markets, and as a result business should take great strides for- ward and the results should be amaz- ingly good. For all of which the Czar sits and chuckles, for he knows better than any one eise that his new Russia has provided both himself and the world in general a wide-open door through which all may sail as often as they see fit. JOE ROSENBERG’S. §Don’t Deadf Not Only on Paper, But Plenly in the Store. Here’s a Few of the Many : LADIBES VESTS—Made of French lisle; low neck and no sleeves; jersey ribbed; neck and arm holes hand crocheted, and run- ning through with Silk Rib- bon; in white only.. e LADIES' VESTS—Made of XX Italian silk; low neok and no sleeves; finished with hand- made beading, with ribben running « through swiss ribbed; in pink and blue; in- stead of $1.25. limited quan- tity will be soid for.....75¢ LADIES’ VESTS—Made of rllr' Vega silk; high heck-and long sleeves; swiss ribbed; elastic and soft as velvet; in pink, blue, cream. Regular $1.50 quality. Monday's and Tues- AY'S PrICe vavvneeen.. Bl Joe Rosenberg The Quality Store. 816 MarKel. 11 OFartell Mail Orders Solicited.